We all (at least you and I) like to see more people moving around on bicycles. All around the world the best invention on wheels of the century is experiencing an unprecedented come-back. ‘Normal cycling’ is gaining lots of traction, Northern-European bike manufacturers can hardly handle demand from overseas, local dealers are struggling to keep up, new ‘cycling cultures’ rise from obscurity, new evolutionary utility(!) bikes spring off the drawing board, cities are mostly unprepared for the influx of riders and city planners are scrambling for study trips to bicycle-friendlier nations.
On top of that, more people than ever are talking about it, publishing about it, sharing ideas, their passion and they are reaching out.
I applaud all of it, obviously. No matter some obvious mistakes, going sideways, different adaptations, the car-centric cynicism or anything else that deviates from the norm, it doesn’t matter. It’s all moving in one general direction, towards a rekindled form of practical thinking. I’m sure of it. A matter of seeing the bigger picture and not getting distracted too much by debris that’s known as (conditioned) human nature/behavior.
These thoughts came to mind when I started editing up Monday’s video footage. The 90 urban islands that form Amsterdam are connected by 1500 1645 bridges. Over three hundred thousand people cross these bridges every day, by bike.
Alert, cheesy metaphoric segway. You, me, and all the others out there, we form the bridges of this understanding. We reach out, we help, we show, teach, learn, exchange, meet, befriend and much more.
In essence, it’s as simple and beautiful as pedaling through town, getting hit by a setting autumn sun, seeing familiar things in a slightly different light. And just plain fun.
Amsterdamize Bicycle TV presents ‘Bridging The Gaps’:
(’Tu seras mon ami’ = ‘You will be my friend’)
WHAT TO DO NOW?